Google Office Hours

When Google first made its entrance into being a better search engine than the competition, backlinks and anchor text acting as signals helped it stand out. However, it wasn't until 2012 when the Penguin algorithm was launched, along with other Hummingbird updates that Google received the capability to perform monumental amounts of link related operations for ranking. Presently, marketing experts are recognizing the power of Google to penalty low value links from its rankings. Just recently, John Mueller guessed that links could have a lessening role in searching in the future. A Googler gave an insight as to why Google still makes use of backlinks and whether link building efforts are acceptable. They commented that, in comparison to its former status, backlinks today don't play as much of a role in their ranking signals. Rather, they utilize hundreds of other sturdy ranking signals to ensure that they are delivering the most appropriate and valuable results to all queries. Google's own instructions indicate that links are an important factor in how it finds websites, suggesting that webmasters promote their sites by creating links. The level of links pointing to a website is still a guide for Google on a site's importance. While the responses given are helpful, the new system of 'Google Office Hours' is not a live broadcast, leaving people unable to ask questions to clarify the answers. If you want to listen to the Google team's advice, start from the 6:08 minute mark.

(source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-link-signal-impact/472922/)